Human pilot and AI raced their drones in Abu Dhabi

Transcript

00:00Robots are being developed everywhere.

00:07But getting robots to work well in the real world is still a big challenge.

00:11That's why competitions are so important.

00:14They test robots in real unpredictable situations

00:18where there's no time to try again and no way to alter the environment.

00:23The robots have to think fast, adapt and perform at any given time.

00:28One challenge where AI was really put to the test this year

00:32took place at the 2025 A2RL Autonomous Drone Racing Championship.

00:39In this competition, drones had to race at high speed through an indoor track

00:44using only a front-facing camera and a motion sensor called an IMU.

00:50That means the drone had to see and understand the track in real time

00:54with extremely limited sensors.

00:57The drone from TU Delft not only won the main event,

01:01flying with peak speeds of 95.8 km per hour through 22 small indoor gates,

01:07but it also faced off against three of the world's best human drone pilots.

01:12And in a historic first, the Autonomous Drone beat them all.

01:17This is more than just a racing win.

01:19The smart, lightweight AI that powered the drone could help all kinds of future robots,

01:25making them faster, more efficient and better at handling the real world.

01:31and the other, it also faced the drone to help.

01:35The drone's head is a very small.

01:37The drone's head is a very small.

01:39The drone's head is a very small.

01:41The drone's head is a big fan of the drone's head.